Autonomic Dysreflexia

This is one of the "joys" of a spinal cord injury. So what is autonomic dysrefelxia? It is the response brought on by something that would have caused pain or discomfort. For example, if you put your hand on something hot a signal goes to your brain (it actually doesn't go that far because of reflexes-OK A&P experts-you can explain this) and then back again using the spinal cord to remove your hand from the source of pain. Greg doesn't have this "spinal highway" to protect him. So, when something is wrong like a tight shoe, he can experience, high blood pressure, headaches, sweating above the level of injury and various other discomforts. This can signal an emergency so after checking bladder, bowel or pressure issues, call 911. This happened to Greg last night and today again. last night it resolved in minutes, today it took over an hour. I am glad that I had a team around me to teach me what to do and understand this. It is one of the most critical pieces of my education.

It is hard to explain how you feel when your body doesn't do what you want it to do, but to have it react in such a strange way, well that is also inexplicable. I don't know how Greg deals with this day in and day out. He also deals with spasticity now-a reflex muscle contraction-that has now appeared in is left thigh and right forearm/wrist. These muscles just "fire" and the literature says that there may infinite reasons why this happens and in most cases you don't have to be concerned, although it can signal an issue to attend to. In some cases you can use the spasm to do something. Greg is so calm through all of this most of the time-emotional, too-but calm. I am still learning this from him. I know I have a long way to go. Greg is strong, maybe the strongest man I know.